2024 Post-Election Prayers

Transcript of the video:

Bishop Jeffrey Lee:

I invite you to pray with me.

This is a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer ["Thanksgivings for National Life 5. For the Nation" on pages 838-839]

Almighty God, giver of all good things;

We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land.

They restore us, though we often destroy them.

Heal us.

We thank you for the great resources of this nation. They make us rich, though we often exploit them.

Forgive us.

We thank you for the men and women who have made this country strong. They are models for us, though we often fall short of them.

Inspire us.

We thank you for the torch of liberty which has been lit in this land. It has drawn people from every nation. Though we have often hidden from its light.

Enlighten us.

We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich variety. It sustains our life. Though we have been faithless again and again.

Renew us.

Help us, O Lord, to finish the good works here begun. Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice, and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will glorify your holy name.

Amen.

I want to greet the members and friends of Saint Paul's Church with a few words. As we consider the implications of yesterday's presidential election, we'll have different responses. There's much to be said about the results of the election. And that will continue to be. But the thing that I want to hold before you today is the importance of your church, your community, your friends, and your family here at Saint Paul's.

A friend of mine who is the Bishop of Michigan, Bonnie Perry, posted something on Facebook that I'd like to share with you. She wrote this:

"We are not one person. We have never been just one person. We are the sum of all of us. Some of us are rejoicing, filled with hope. Others of us are doubled over in despair. We are, all of us, separated, divided: we perish. Together, we do not."

This is an invitation to all of you to remember who we are, and to remember that our gathering, week by week, at Saint Paul's, is the place we encounter the living God, who is our only hope and the only God worthy of our faith, our trust. We trust in God, and together, we trust in God better.

Additional Resources:

Read the letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on the U.S. presidential election.